Product Description

For centuries British navigators dreamt of finding the Northwest Passage – the route over the top of North America that would open up the fabulous wealth of Asia to British merchants. We know now that, while several such passages exist, during the period of the search by sailing vessels they were choked by impassable ice. But this knowledge was slowly won, as expedition after expedition, under the most terrible conditions, slowly filled in their patchy and sometimes fatally misleading charts. Arctic Labyrinth tells this extraordinary story with great skill and brilliance. From the tiny, woefully equipped ships of the first Tudor expeditions to the icebreakers and nuclear submarines of the modern era, Glyn Williams describes how every form of ingenuity has been used to break through or try to get round the nightmarish ice barriers set in a maze of sterile islands. The heroism, folly and horror of these voyages seem almost unbelievable, with entire ships crushed, mass starvation, epics of endurance – and all in pursuit of a goal that ultimately proved futile. Williams’s book is both an important work of exploration and naval history, and a remarkable study in human delusion and fortitude.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30737 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-01
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

About the Author
Glyn Williams is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of London and former president of the Hakluyt Society.He is author of a group of remarkable and original accounts of major naval voyages, including AnsonÂ’s voyage around the world (The Prize of All the Oceans) and Arctic exploration in the eighteenth century (Voyages of Delusion).

Customer Reviews

An absolutely gripping read!
Make yourself popular this Christmas - buy this for someone - and don't forget to buy a copy to read yourself! Certainly in my top 3 books of the year and for sheer readability comfortably in the top spot.
Glyn Williams covers the whole story of the search for the North-west passage - which is a great idea in itself. If you have read much about the Franklin expedition or the other C19 explorations, you may, like me, have had a vague sense of what went before, and another that one really should find out a bit about Amundsen's successful navigation of the passage. This book fills in all the gaps - and more, covers the bits one knows admirably (no mean feat given the sheer volume of Franklin-specific material there is out there!), and emerges as a wonderfully satisfying whole. But it is way, way more than that. Each chapter in the story of the search is a thrilling read in itself (in some ways it would make a great bed time serial), which Williams covers with authority, humour, beautiful use of language, and an instinct for keeping one on the edge of one's seat which suggests he ought to write thrillers on the side! (Also refreshingly well edited - I only found 2 typos.)
I am now off to buy Williams' "The Prize of All the Oceans".....